Indonesia earthquake: 6.3 tremor hits off Java, felt in Jakarta

PUBLISHED Sun, June 11, 2017 - 7:34pm EDT

Credit: Google

A strong earthquake (gempa) with a preliminary magnitude of 6.3 has struck off the Indonesian island of Java, centered southwest of Jakarta, Bogor, and Bandung. Only few details were immediately available. (more)

The earthquake, which struck at 6:15 a.m. local time on Monday, was centered about 192 kilometers (119 miles) southwest of Bogor. It struck at a depth of about 10 kilometers (6.2 miles), making it a shallow earthquake.

Indonesia's seismological agency BMKG put the preliminary magnitude at 6.3, while the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) put the magnitude at 5.6. Many people across the western end of Java said the earthquake was strong enough to wake them up.

Indonesia is on the so-called 'Pacific Ring of Fire', an arc of fault lines circling the Pacific Basin that is prone to frequent and large earthquakes.

In December 2004, a magnitude-9.1 tremor, one of the most powerful earthquakes ever recorded, struck off the west coast of Sumatra, unleashing a massive tsunami that struck scores of countries in the region and killed at least 227,898 people.

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